Daily Archives: May 22, 2012

Retired Psychiatrist Apologizes For Decade Old Study on Gay Cure

May 22, 2012   Joanelle Navarro   No comments

Photo Credit: www.nytimes.com

Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, a prominent retired psychiatrist, has apologized to the gay community for a study he did ten years ago that concluded that gay people can go straight.

Spitzer, formerly of Columbia University, now believes his work did not show that.

For the study, 200 people, who claimed that they had changed, were interviewed.  In a letter published by Spitzer, he now believes the “fatal flaw” in the study was that there as no way to judge the credibility of their accounts.

The study made lots of headlines in 2001, when Spitzer presented his work at an American Psychiatric Association meeting.  This was mostly due to the fact that Spitzer had been a leader for 30 years in removing homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in the association’s diagnostic manual.

His study was criticized by many over the reliability of the accounts from the interviewed.  At the time, Spitzer himself, even acknowledged he had no proof that their stories were accurate.

Now Spitzer believes his reasoning was wrong, as “there was no way to determine if the subject’s accounts of change were valid.”

Read More

After Surgery, Man Loses Penis due to Flesh-Eating Bacteria

May 22, 2012   Joanelle Navarro   No comments

Photo Credit: www.latino.foxnews.com

A man is suing an anesthesiologist over a major medical mistake that left him disfigured.

Enrique Milla gave testimony on May 17 over his case.  In 2007, Milla wanted to get a penile implant in order to improve his sex life.

Milla’s attorney is arguing that anesthesiologist, Dr. Laurentia Boeru, shouldn’t have allowed the surgery to occur because of his clients pre-existing medical conditions.  Milla has an extreme case of diabetes, high blood pressure, and his blood sugar levels were too high on the day of his surgery.

Milla’s surgery ending up leaving him without a penis.  After a Gangrene infection spread through his penis nine days after surgery, the flesh-eating bacteria ate his penis inch by inch.

Spencer Aronfeld, Milla’s attorney, said in court that as a result of the bacteria, “He has to spend the rest of his life without a functioning penis.  He has to sit down to urinate.  He’ll never have any intimate relationships with anyone, and he’s lost his manhood.”

Read More

Mother Banned From Facebook Over Photos of Son

May 22, 2012   Joanelle Navarro   No comments

Photo Credit: www.theblaze.com

Facebook has recently banned a woman from their website over photos she posted of her newborn son.

Heather Walker gave birth to her son Grayson James Walker on Feb. 15, 2012.  He was born with a rare neural tube birth defect known as Anecephaly.  This defect means that a baby is born without parts of their brain and skull.  Grayson sadly only lived for eight hours.

Walker had posted a photo of Grayson on the social media website without his hat on.

“Not long after, Facebook deleted them because of the content.  They allow people to post almost nude pictures of themselves, profanity, and so many other things but I’m not allowed to share a picture of God’s beautiful creation,” she said.

Walker and her Facebook friends decided that they would repost the photos in protest, which ended in the mother receiving a 24-hour ban from the site.

According to Facebook, there are nine types of content that can be deemed offensive, and thus removed: Violence/Threats, Self-Harm, Bullying/Harassment, Hate Speech, Graphic Violence, Nudity/Pornography, Identity/Privacy, Intellectual Property, and Phishing/Spam.

Walker believes the photos of her son does not fall into any of these categories, and instead is raising awareness.

Read More

We’re Not Out Yet

May 22, 2012   Anthony Buchanan   No comments

photo by Brennan Linsley/AP

The slow and meticulously planned withdraw of US troops from Afghanistan will be met with unending assault by opposing forces until the day every soldier is home, new reports say.  The December 31st date in the year 2014 has been set by the president, but previously many believed combat by American forces to stop before that date.  Now, the commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan says that is simply not true.

“I don’t want to, again, understate the challenge that we have ahead of us.  The Taliban is still a resilient and capable opponent in the battle space,” General John Allen said. “There’s no end of combat before the end of 2014. And in fact the Taliban will oppose the ANSF after 2014.”  The ANSF stands for the Afghan national security forces being trained by the alliance.

Although the number of troops occupying Afghanistan will be reduced significantly that does not mean the fighting will end, Allen hopes people will understand.  “It doesn’t mean that we won’t be fighting, it doesn’t mean there won’t be combat. And that’s important because there is a narrative out there that combat operations for the US stops at milestone 2013. That is not, in fact, correct,” the general said.

While not focusing on the impact of the withdraw of French forces by the end of the year and Pakistan’s decision to stop supplying ground help for NATO forces after a NATO strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, the general still remains stringent about the divide between the missions of the commander on the ground and the one in the oval office.

“There is no daylight between the commander on the ground in Afghanistan and the commander in chief.”  The general said, “I was asked whether I could execute that plan and I told them that I can, and I’m executing the plan.”

The eventual withdraw date of 2014 is still a strong one, and for the first time there is an end in sight, it’s just not over yet.

For more on this read here.

Read More

  • View a Clip from the Film ‘Raze’

  • Free PR Web Directory

    News and Media link directory